The Angola 3 are three Black men who collectively spent 114 years in solitary confinement torture in the USA. They were framed for organizing against injustice inside Angola Prison in Louisiana. The film documents their decades-long struggle for justice and to build a national and international movement to end solitary confinement.

Please come out to show your support on February 23rd for people to be put in a true general population setting with regular access to yard, day room, programming, jobs, fresh air, phone, and other means of social interaction and environmental stimulation.

Rally with us and be in court for oral argument in this important hearing in Ashker v. Governor of California.

“My total out-of-cell time for the entire month was 16.83 hours”

To supporters of human rights,

On February 23, 2018 in San Francisco, an important motion will be heard in Ashker v. Governor (aka Ashker v. Brown), the federal class action lawsuit challenging prolonged solitary confinement in California. As a result of the settlement in Ashker, over 1400 people were released from solitary confinement Security Housing Units (SHU) to what the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) calls “General Population.” Yet, many of the class members released from SHU continue to suffer conditions of extreme isolation. Hardly ever getting out-of-cell time, they have been forced to spend as much or more time locked in their cells as when they were in SHU, with little to no rehabilitative or educational programming or social interaction with other people.

On February 23, Jules Lobel, of the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Ashker legal team, will be arguing a motion challenging these SHU-like general population units as a violation of the settlement agreement.

A prisoner who is no longer in SHU after 15 years, explains his new “general population” conditions at Calipatria:

“… Out of cell time is regularly cancelled or restricted. Yard time is scheduled 4 times per week, but is often available only 1 or 2 times per week. Showers and telephone calls, which are supposed to be available every other day, are infrequent, and we must choose one or the other. … I leave my cell for 20-25 minutes for breakfast, and many days, this is my only out-of-cell time. …The conditions in ‘general population’ in Calipatria are similar to SHU… I have limited social interaction and intellectual stimulation. I rarely go outside…I have difficulty maintaining relationships with my family especially since my ability to use the telephone is so infrequent and irregular. I suffer from insomnia. I suffer from anxiety that I feel is directly linked to the irregular programming: I am anxious because I do not know what will happen next.”

Carol Strickman, of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the Ashker legal team, states:

“On Friday, February 23, the San Francisco district court magistrate will hear argument on our motion regarding the isolated conditions that many of our class members are experiencing in the Level IV maximum security prisons that they were transferred to. Their conditions are so extreme that our correctional expert states, ‘These prisoners are not actually in what reasonably may be considered general population: rather, they are in a form of restrictive housing as these terms are commonly understood within the corrections profession.’ We are encouraging interested parties to attend the hearing.”

RALLY AT 12PM before the hearing, outside of the courthouse HEARING AT 1PM in Courtroom 1, on the 17th floor. (Remember to bring ID)

Please pass this message on to fellow supporters of human rights who may be able to attend on the 23rd. Check the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity website for upcoming details on a postcard campaign to further support the Ashker class members. https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

If you have transportation needs or offers for the Feb 23 Rally and Court Hearing, please emailphssreachingout@gmail.com or call 510-426-5322 as soon as possible.

KAMBUI NEEDS OUR SUPPORT AND PRESENCE IN COURT. THE SYSTEM WANTS TO EXECUTE HIM.

Kambui Robinson was in solitary torture chambers in California for many years.
Kambui participated in all three peaceful hunger strikes of 2011 and 2013, and wrote accounts of the struggle at Corcoran. He was released from Corcoran SHU in 2015. Now he is at New Folsom. Kambui is part of the New Afrikan Revolutionary Nationalism (N.A.R.N.) Collective Think Tank. Read some of their writings here: https://narncollective.wordpress.com/articles-by-nctt-cor-shu-members/

You can also find articles under “Kambui” in the SF Bay View He needs our support at this time Kambui was incarcerated in SHU for decades. Now the same system that incarcerated him in those horrifying conditions wants to kill him.

Please support Kambui by coming to court when he appears for the third day in this trial.

We are mobilizing an EMERGENCY PROTEST at the CA Department of Corrections in Sacramento on Monday, Nov 30th. This is serious.

People in solitary confinement have been loudly awakened by guards every 30 minutes 24/7 since the night of August 2nd, almost 4 months! Please participate in an emergency protest in Sacramento to stop these every 30 minute so-called “security/welfare checks” being done in the Pelican Bay SHU and other solitary units in CA prisons. Sleep deprivation is torture, and that is what these loud, intrusive checks are causing. For people in solitary cells 23-24 hours a day, the noise and disruption every 30 minutes is unavoidable, endless torture. They are experiencing severe stress, weight loss, dizziness, nausea, headaches, eye problems, stomach and bowel problems, faintness, depression, and sped-up heart rates. They cannot concentrate, exercise, read, do legal work- the things that help them survive- and they can’t sleep!

An emergency demo is warranted.119 days and nights of torment!Please help make this a powerful convergence in front of the California Department of Corrections in Sacramento.

Protest at 1515 S St, Sacramento, CA 95811 from 10am to 2pm. Rideshares will leave from MacArthur BART in Oakland at 8am. To offer or find rides from Oakland or other CA locales, please call Verbena at 510.426.5322 or email phssreachingout@gmail.com

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